Report: In one trial 1 in 6 chose the HP Elite X3 over a laptop

Microsoft is hoping Continuum for Phones will be the secret sauce to make Windows Phones relevant again, at least in enterprise, and according to HP there is actually some traction in that approach.

Ray Shaw from ITWire reports that in one trial in a multi-national company, 1 out of 6 users chose the HP Elite X3 and desktop dock over a laptop, writing:

A multinational company that I am aware of recently offered the option of a HP Elite x360 or x2 notebook or a HP x3, and Lap Dock — all connecting to a 27” monitor/keyboard/dock at work — and while it is early days, the take-up of the x3 has exceeded expectations coming in at a five-to-one preference after initial trials.

They also report that the more public trial by the German Saarland police service to use the device to record road-side incidents saw the device also getting a great reception, writing:

The trial saw various devices rolled-out to 1/3 of Mobile Police Units with universally positive feedback from the police officers acknowledging the solution provided a higher level of efficiency and freed up time to do other essential police work.

When considering the nature of road-side incidents, the benefits for emergency services and the public are immediate, with the solution reducing the period of traffic congestion by 50% following an incident.

As a result of the success of the trial, the German minister of interior indicated an intention to deploy the solution across the whole state to covering approximately 1600 police officers. Research from Accenture claims that this will enable productivity gains to the state of Saarland to the sum of €20m over three years. As the favoured device by the trial participants, the HP Elite x3 was selected for deployment.

Certainly all these are not enough to set the smartphone world on fire, but it should ensure that the 6-inch segment will continue to get attention from Microsoft, whether it runs Windows 10 Mobile or a future version of full Windows 10 on ARM.